A Midsummer Night's Scream
A Jane Jeffry Mystery

By Jill Churchill

     It's a midsummer night's scream when Jane, her detective boyfriend Mel and her pal Shelly try to solve the murder of an actor. Jane and Shelly take up needlepoint and help with the college play. In directing the catered meals and observing the rehearsals, the two come to recognize the arrogant, the amateur, and the admired. It's the murderer that takes them by surprise.

   The play starts out slow, but gains speed as a real dud. When the suburban moms mention it to the well-known older actress starring in play, she fluffs it off and directs her energy to the needlepoint class. During rehearsals, a moody professor stirs up strife, testing Shelly's temperament and a class clown takes to ad-libbing. Soo,n a victim is found and Detective Mel is called. Once Jane and Shelly discover who the victim is, they get to work solving the mystery. With Jane's obvious need for perfection, Detective Mel can bet she won't cry "solved" until it truly is.

    It's a slow, winding path of clues and suspects. Stick with it until the mystery shows up in Chapter Eight and you will be greatly rewarded. Usually number fifteen in a series means it's winding down. Not so with Jane Jeffry, since Churchill has the ability to keep her growing as a character. Jane's new desire to write historical mysteries will most likely give Churchill plenty of storyline ideas. If you haven't tried this cozy series, you should.